Shaun Chen saunters next to us at the After The Stars press conference and it's clear that he's in a good mood.

“Hey! How are you!” the 40-year-old actor greets us excitedly and we proceed to reciprocate his friendliness by wishing his daughter Nellie a belated happy birthday. “You saw my Instagram post? Yeah, she just turned four on December 5!” said Shaun, whose younger daughter Neia is two.

It’s been a good six months since we last caught up with Shaun, who plays a dashing and much sought-after artiste manager in the drama.

“I’m just there for everyone to fall in love with,” Shaun cheekily tells 8days.sg. In After The Stars, which also stars Malaysian actress Jojo Goh, Cynthia Koh, Lin Meijiao and Jasmine Sim, his character is involved with both Jeanette Aw's actress-turned-artiste manager and He Yingying's wannabe starlet.

We joke that he must have enjoyed all the female attention. Yes… Um... Actually, no! (Laughs) Eh, that sounds wrong too. Okay, okay, I enjoyed it all! he laughs. Wait, I’m not supposed to be enjoying this! Okay, I did not enjoy it! It’s very stressful to kiss other people during filming! I’m afraid to touch somewhere I’m not supposed to…

So what does his wife Celine, whom he married in 2015, think of his onscreen flirtations? Before every intimate scene I will tell my wife lah so that she can avoid watching it. (Laughs) If I don’t tell her and if she finds out, I’ll be in hot soup! (Laughs) I also don’t let my kids watch my kissing scenes!”

When we ask Shaun how he felt about romancing Yingying, who is 16 years his junior, he says that it was “weird” not just because of the age gap but also 'cos her character is “too clingy for [his] liking”.

However, Shaun does not mind if his girls decide to date guys much older than they are in the future.

“Aiyah, older guys are better, he says. It’s okay even if they are 20 years older. As long as the guy is healthy, mature and has a stable life, why not? As long as the guy treats them well, it’s okay!”

What if they date someone who’s a playboy just like his character in show then? Well, it will be a lesson to learn then, he coolly shrugs.

“But I think they’re the ones who will be doing the dumping next time,” Shaun laughs. “Girls these days are so tough! My daughters have strong personalities and I'm not worried about them getting bullied by boys!”

Unlike Joanne Peh and Qi Yuwu who try to keep their kids away from the public eye, Shaun has no issues with letting his fans know more about his girls.

“I’m not a superstar so nobody cares about my children,” he chuckles. “It’s not a big deal to me and it’s so much less stressful than trying to hide every day. It’s so troublesome to cover their faces in photos… But at the same time, I hope nobody takes advantage of my openness and decide to hurt my children. But Singapore is safe lah, I don’t offend people and I’m not rich, so I’ll just take it easy.”

Also in the public eye these days is his wife Celine who appears in endorsements with Shaun. Why? “‘Cos there’s money!” he tells us frankly.

However, the 30-year-old former beautician, who is now an influencer with over 50K Instagram followers, does not plan to step into showbiz anytime soon.

“She’s satisfied with [being just an influencer]. I really think that my wife can be a model but she’s not interested to go further. She'll do some advertisements and that’s it. She prefers being an influencer. She doesn’t like to talk to people in real life,” he says.

Photos: Kelvin Chia/ 8days.sg & Mediacorp Photo Unit
Catch After The Stars weekdays, 9pm on Ch 8. After The Stars is available on demand for free on Toggle. Click here to watch.